Mind Ripper supposedly began as a sequel to The Hills Have Eyes II. Wes Craven, who produced this film (co-written by his son), apparently had a last minute change of heart, removing all references to those other films. I’m going to guess it was because he didn’t want to smear the reputation of his duology once he saw how poorly this project was shaping up.
A group of research scientists, led by Lance Henriksen’s character, discover a John Doe in the desert outside their secret facility, left badly injured from a failed suicide attempt. It just so happens the scientists are developing a regenerative tissue serum that is the man’s only shot at survival. After wrestling with the moral implications for all of sixteen seconds, the scientists inject the serum into their unwitting test subject. Sometime in the following months, Henriksen grows a conscience and quits his job to spend more time with his kids: a young Giovanni Ribisi and a daughter whose boyfriend is constantly trying to screw her, even when her dad’s in the room.
As expected, the John Doe breaks free of his confines and hides in the shadows of the ventilation shafts, picking off the scientists one by one. We’ve all seen this monster-in-a-facility movie a hundred times before (this my second one this month!), only this time the monster is played by a rather human-looking young man, nicknamed THOR (trans-human something-or-‘nother), until the filmmakers finally slap a pair of yellow eye contacts on him. THOR is played by Dan Bloom, a long-haired fella who has a number of credits playing the hunky bimbo on shows like Married with Children, Baywatch, and HBO’s Dream On.
THOR’s ineffectiveness as a movie monster is not a failure of the actor. In fact, Bloom brings a surprising amount of physicality to the role, lending the film its best scenes. Late in the movie, he’ll undergo a tame metamorphosis in which his ears and hair fall off while a sufficiently gross tentacle occasionally emerges from his mouth to suck his victim’s brains out of their skulls. The gore scenes are few and far between, but they are up to snuff whenever the camera doesn’t cut away prematurely.
The biggest groaner: THOR catches our heroes, kills all but one, then awakens from a nap. It turns out it was all just a dream, deep in the third-quarter of the game—much too late for such a play. It’s the first time during this year’s 31 Days of Gore that I call shenanigans. Yellow flag on the field. 25 yards to the away team.
Mind Ripper is one of the more competent Alien rip-offs, but that’s not saying much. It’s too long, too bland, and stiffly acted. There’s nary a reason to watch it, even for horror junkies. I confess a certain nostalgia for this era of cheap brain candy, but even I was unmoved for much of it. I was on the fence on giving it a passing grade for the gore, but unfortunately there just isn’t enough to justify it. I don’t hate it, but I don’t like it very much, either.
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